09-24-2026IMPACT COUNCIL

What faith-based communities understand about public health

Offering a whole-person approach to recovery that supports lasting recovery.

[Photo: Getty Images]

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of top leaders and experts who pay dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership, and more.

BY Kathy Crosby and Howard Koh, MD MPH

One of the most powerful drivers of health is something hard to measure: hope and the relationships that help people hold onto it. That is where faith-based communities have played a powerful, yet sometimes underappreciated, role in public health.

Faith-based communities and organizations provide many of the supports public health experts recognize as essential, including social connection, accountability, purpose, stress reduction, practical assistance, and trusted community leadership. Research from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health led by Dr. Howard Koh shows these factors can meaningfully influence health behaviors, including tobacco and nicotine cessation.

Perhaps most importantly, faith communities tend to see people as more than the health challenge they are facing. They care for the whole person—mind, body, relationships, purpose, and spirit—recognizing that lasting recovery is about rebuilding a life, not simply ending an addiction. While public health practitioners do this too, for some people, faith communities may offer a different approach to helping restore a person.

SUPPORT FOR A WHOLE PERSON APPROACH

Addiction often takes root amid stress, mental health challenges, loneliness, trauma, or the belief that nothing will change. People trying to quit are often navigating anxiety, isolation, financial pressure, social dynamics that reinforce use, and deeply ingrained ways of coping with life’s challenges. Public health often speaks in terms of reducing risk, while........

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